After the Florida Panthers edged out the Edmonton Oilers on home ice at Rogers Place to win the Stanley Cup Final Game 2 in double overtime, the Oilers needed a response. However, the Oilers’ excursion to Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, has proved difficult with the defending champions dominating most of the action. Yet, amid the Cats’ goal-scoring spree, TSN hockey insider Pierre LeBrun spotted a potential problem.

The analyst noticed that the puck was extra bouncy on the ice. “The conditions inside the Panther’s Puck bouncing around like a hot potato on the ice here tonight,” LeBrun commented on the situation. What’s more? He wasn’t the only one. “Seems like the puck is like a ping pong ball out on the ice…tough to handle…#StanleyCupFinal,” added SiriusXM NHL host Zig Fracassi. So what’s going on?

Well, the TSN reporter chalked it up to the weather. “Nothing you can do to make great ice in mid-June in Florida. Humidity (is) through the roof all day here today,” added the NHL analyst. While the stadium where they’re hosting the Stanley Cup Final comes with climate control, there’s only so much you can do. At the time of writing, AccuWeather puts Florida’s indoor humidity at “83% (Extremely Humid).”

This doesn’t bode well, because they’ll also play Game 4 in Sunrise, before the series heads back to Rogers Place. However, if you thought the Oilers used it as an excuse, you’d be wrong. In fact, it would be impossible to blame a bounce puck for a 6-1 blowout and not face immense backlash. What’s more? Edmonton has dealt with and won on less-than-perfect ice before in Round 2.

Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy addressed the issue with Vegas’ home ice in the very first game of their Round 2 series. “You could see the ice. The pucks were bouncing, and the ice looked a little bit soft. I don’t know, for whatever reason,” admitted the coach. Yet, the Golden Knights didn’t complain, saying both teams had to deal with it, and the Stanley Cup finalists beat them 4-2 despite falling behind early. What’s more? The ice at Amerant Bank Arena was barely an inconvenience compared to the Oilers’ real problems.

A bouncy puck was the least of the Stanley Cup contenders’ problems

The version of the Oilers team that pushed the defending champions to the brink in the first two games didn’t show up in Game 3. Florida completely shut down the Connor McDavid-Leon Draisaitl dynamic duo. The two, who combined to score the winning goal in Game 1 and kept the Oilers alive until double OT in Game 2, were nearly invisible on the ice tonight.

Instead, the disclosure after the game boiled down to complaints about the officiating. In fact, the officiating and the ridiculous number of penalty minutes became a huge point of debate among the fans. “You will not see many Stanley Cup Final games like that one — 140 total penalty minutes,” TSN’s Chris Johnston wrote on X after the game.

It was Edmonton who drew more of the 140 penalty minutes, drawing 21 penalties while the Panthers got 14 calls. Viktor Arvidsson, Corey Perry, and Evander Kane were some of the notable Oilers who found themselves on the receiving end of the penalties. Kane earned not one but four calls and didn’t shy away from calling out the officials later.

“You look at some of the calls—some of them are frustrating. They seem to get away with more than we do,” said Evander Kane. “It’s tough to find the line. They’re doing just as much stuff as we are, but there seems to be a little more attention paid to our group,” he said. Meanwhile, Skinner also fell short in front of the net.

It was so bad that coach Kris Knoblauch pulled the goaltender after he allowed 5 goals on 23 shots. “As a goalie, you gotta come up with a save,” Skinner later lamented. So all in all, it was a pretty terrible outing for the Oilers, and not something they can afford to repeat in Game 4.